Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/319

Rh there one of their people, a religious whom I had made a prisoner, and who was similar to a superior of their religion. He came, and spoke with them, and made an agreement between them and me; and, as it appeared, and according to what they had said, they immediately sent messengers to the captains and people who were in outside camps, telling them that the attack on the fort should cease, as well as all other hostilities. Thus we took our leave and I entered the fort to eat.

When I was about to begin, some one came hastily, to say that the Indians had regained the bridges which we had captured that day, and had killed  Narrow Escape of Cortes some Spaniards. God only knows how much disturbance this caused me, for I was thinking that we had assured a passage for our retreat. I mounted my horse with all possible haste, and rode through the length of the street, with some other horsemen following me, and, without halting anywhere, I again dashed through the Indians, and recaptured the bridges, pursuing the enemy to the mainland. As the foot soldiers were very tired, and wounded, and dismayed, none of them followed me, and this left me in a very dangerous situation after I had passed the bridges. When I sought to return, I found them retaken, and more deeply dug out than when we had filled them up, and from one side to the other all the causeway was full of people, not only on land, but also in canoes on the water, who goaded us, and stoned us in such a manner, that, if God had not interposed to save us it would have been impossible to escape; indeed it was even already announced in the city that I was dead. When I reached the last bridge nearest the city, I found all the horsemen who had gone with me fallen in it, and one horse loose, so that I could not pass, but was obliged to return alone in face of my enemies. I forced something of a passage, so that the horses passed, and after this, I